Lennox academy makes hasty attempt to secede from district as charter

The Lennox Math, Science and Technology Academy is a perennial presence on the U.S. News and World Report’s annual list of best American high schools and, by many accounts, the crown jewel of the Lennox School District.

And yet on Tuesday night, the Lennox school board will vote on whether to relinquish control of the 500-student school so it can hang onto the principal and founder, Armando Mena, who reportedly has one foot out the door and has been at odds with the district’s leadership.

Specifically, the board will decide whether to approve the school’s hastily written application to become an independently run charter school, meaning the district would lose virtually all of its authority over the academy. Founded about a decade ago, the school is currently a dependent charter, which is another way of saying the school’s principal answers to the district’s superintendent.

Typically, leaders of local school districts resist such a breakaway, because they lose not only control, but also the state money that comes with those students. But in this case, Kent Taylor — the deputy superintendent who is acting as the head administrator because the full-time leader, Barbara Flores, is on medical leave — said he supports the plan.

“To me, the analogy is, the school district gave permission for the Lennox academy to exist, it was much like a birth,” he said. “Really the school has gotten to a place where it has grown up. It’s done well academically; it’s financially sound. Is this not a perfect time to look at switching from a dependent model to an independent?”

The issue surfaced on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, when Mena tendered his resignation and submitted his two-week notice, with plans to take the helm at City Honors Charter High School — the crown jewel school of the district next door, Inglewood Unified. (That school, too, is a dependent charter.)

The move was seen as the latest blow to a district that has been in turmoil ever since Flores became the superintendent in Lennox a year ago. Flores has been a focal point of discord, with factions forming on the basis of support for or opposition to her leadership.

Detractors accuse her of disregarding rules meant to keep government transparent, intimidating employees who cross her and hiring friends and associates to work as high-paid consultants.

Supporters say she represents a welcome change from prior administrations, who — in their view — turned a deaf ear to parent and teacher concerns.

In any event, after last school year, the principals at four of the district’s eight schools had moved on. Mena’s departure would have made it five.

Over the Labor Day weekend, word of his departure had spread so fast through the school community that the students had already organized a massive walk-out in the morning. A couple hundred of them participated, waving picket signs and chanting “We want Mena!”

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In an effort to keep their leader, the school’s faculty fast-tracked a vote on whether to apply to become an independent charter. Significantly, the move also would require the school’s teachers to secede from the Lennox teachers union. The academy’s teachers opted to do so in a landslide vote, and an application was drawn up.

Mena did not return calls for comment Monday. But some in the community say he was unhappy about a decision this past spring by Flores to overturn a longtime school policy at the academy prohibiting credit-deficient students from participating in graduation ceremonies. The exception applied to just a handful of students, one of them the daughter of Lennox school board member Mercedes Ibarra.

At least one school board member, Marisol Cruz, does not appreciate the manner in which the charter application came about.

“The academy is not the property of Mr. Mena; it is something that belongs to the whole community,” said Cruz, the board president. “Putting in his resignation out of the blue really caught me off guard.”

Cruz didn’t say how she plans to vote, noting that she wants to gauge the will of the entire Lennox community. She said that she would prefer to see Lennox residents vote on the matter themselves, after they’ve had more time to digest the pros and cons.

“Let there be a process,” she said, “not just an ultimatum for the board to do this or else. People need to have an informed choice.”

The 5:30 p.m. meeting is scheduled to occur in the board room, but the issue has generated so much buzz there is talk of moving it to the multipurpose room of Jefferson Elementary School.